Inkscape

0.47pre4 new(?) commandline behavior causes problems

Asked by juve

I have been using Inkscape to produce PDFs from my SVG for over two years now.
I just updated my Inkscape to 0.47pre4 (Windows) and I am using Lyx 1.6.3 (Windows), which triggers the command line conversion via a custom batch-script (inkscape.cmd, see LyX wiki: http://wiki.lyx.org/Tools/SVGFilesAndInkscape)

The plain command line conversion of inkscape itself is still working when invoked manually (via windows command line), but when I start PDF production in LyX (which calls the batch-script), a commandline pops up (showing that inkscape executes python) for every SVG i have in my document. This did not happen before, it was processed in the background. Afterward, there are no error dialogs (neither from LyX nor from Inkscape), but the resulting PDF is lacking all images.

I believe that this bug related to some changes w.r.t. command line handling; maybe the way python is called inkscape internally changed and causes this bug?

Sorry for so many speculations, but do you have any clue what might cause this issue, and if there is a fix for it (besides having to revert inkscape to 0.46)?

Thx,
Juve

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su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#1

There has been a recent bug report with similar issues when exporting PDFs via 'Save a copy…' from the GUI (Inkscape 0.47pre4, WinXP). Have you tested if in your case the same SVG files - those that fail to export from command line - export ok using the 'Save as…' or 'Save a copy…' dialog when opening them with the GUI version of Inkscape?

Bug #480664 in Inkscape: “Save copy as ... pdf -> no file created”:
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/480664>

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juve (awakener) said : 		#2

"Save as .." works fine, "Save" also.
One other thing related to this:
my SVG is about 50k
my inkscape 0.46 PDF is 90k
and the 0.47pre4 PDF is 360k

I also checked if it's a problem of the generated PDFs. Which is not, because i can include the (0.46 or 0.47pre) PDFs directly and LyX generates valid documents. But this results in bas usability, since i alsways have to additionally us "save as ... PDF" when drawing/editing images.

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su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#3

The size issue is a known problem with 0.47pre, it has just recently been fixed:
Bug #469180 “Significant Differences in exported PDF File Size from 0.46 to 0.47pre3/4”:
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/469180>
Bug #271695 “Kerned text embeds too many fonts and blows up the file size in EPS/PS”:
<https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/271695>
but keep in mind that 0.47 uses Cairo to export to EPS/PS/PDF which always embeds and subsets all fonts used in the document (<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.47#PDF.2C_PostScript.2C_and_EPS_export>) and might result in slightly increased file sizes.

I don't think that's related to your initial question. Do you have a custom python installation that overrides (via PATH and PYTHONPATH) the one installed with Inkscape? Bug #187290 mentions calling 'pythonw.exe' instead of 'python.exe' to avoid the blank DOS window pop up. I don't use win32 myself but AFAICS current builds of 0.47pre4 still include 'pythonw.exe'.

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juve (awakener) said : 		#4

THX, that fixed my problem:

I renamed inkscape/python/pythonw.exe to pythonw.bak,
thus i expect that inkscape is now forced to use the plain python.exe version.
I don't have any other pythons installed.

So the solution to this is probably: don't ship the windows version of inkscape with pythonw.exe (or force inkscape internally to use the plain version)

In your hint you state that pythonw.exe should be preferred over python.exe. It is the other way around (at least for me)

Thx, for the fast responses,
Juve

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su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#5

> don't ship the windows version of inkscape with pythonw.exe
If you think it's something that isn't specific to your system but needs to be addressed in Inkscape or in the win32 installer - could you file a bug report? Here in the 'Answer' section it will hardly be picked up by a developer or package maintainer... there's a link near the bottom of this web page (I don't know if it's listed in the e-mail notification as well) - 'Create bug report' - than you could use to file your question as a report over in the bug tracker section ;-)

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juve (awakener) said : 		#6

Attention:
pythonw.exe is not the problem!

See here for further details: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/482093